The american journal of psychiatry

THE

AMERICAN

JOURNAL

OF PSYCHIATRY

Editorial

Grief:

A

Normal

odd looking his early

woman
Her

attempt

43-year-old,

life,

who

found

“made

death

led

him

(uncommon

establish

a relationship

live without

adaptability,

in his

was

mind.

with

What

should

issue

of the Journal

have

pose

that

such

taken

complicated

In his

a step

toward

sive

response

object mental logical

by the

His

aspect

in

inseparable.

a serious

perhaps

and

of extreme

devastation

suicide

correct,

His discovery at the

that

ability

good

as he searched

of human

and

Grief

and

Empirical

her

to

fortune

sudden

loss

for this woman

existence,

colleagues

attachment

in this

Depression

in Elderly

in differentiating

and

in an article

Bereavement-Related

Validation

understanding,

grief, with persistent
1917
paper,
“Mourning

for the twentieth century cal responses to the loss

niche.

and

and

a circumstance

Prigerson

Preliminary

tender

his belief,

damaged

to a 57-year-old

is normality?

(“Complicated

Disorders:

been

her.”

to be unrelenting

this central

problems.

extremely

marriage

had

reflected

was

What

man,

a depression)

to “join

to a narrow

is pathology?

loss,

that

woman

but promised

surprising

They
(not

his wish

Variants

18-year-long

reaction

grief)

this

admittedly

It is hardly

Distinct

grief

her and

inevitable

impaired

in an

feel ten feet tall.”

in “normal”

not

not only

intellectually

redemption

to an intense

he could and and Pathological

Bereaved syndromes two

as

Spouses”) of loss:

yearning for the lost person, and depression. and Melancholia,”
Freud (1) provided